As a sociologist, I study the social and environmental effects of the rapid growth of bottled-water consumption in the U.S. and beyond, and how it is linked to distrust of public tap water. In my new book, “Unbottled,” one chapter examines how these dynamics played out in Flint. As its example shows, communities can end up relying on bottled water – often at great expense – for years after a crisis

Jaffee, Daniel

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PDXScholar (Portland State University)

Portland State University PDXScholar Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations Sociology 10-25-2023 When Communities Face Drinking Water Crises, Bottled Water is a 'Temporary' Solution That Often Lasts Years--and Worsens Inequality Daniel Jaffee Portland State University, jaffee@pdx.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/soc_fac  Part of the Inequality and Stratification Commons, and the Water Resource Management Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits you. Citation Details Jaffee, Daniel, "When Communities Face Drinking Water Crises, Bottled Water is a 'Temporary' Solution That Often Lasts Years--and Worsens Inequality" (2023). Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations. 191. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/soc_fac/191 This Article is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: pdxscholar@pdx.edu. Academic rigor, journalistic flairDaniel JaffeeAssociate Professor of Sociology, Portland State UniversityA massive intrusion of salt water into the Mississippi River has left the tap water in several Louisianacommunities unsafe to drink and could threaten the New Orleans metropolitan area. The most visibleemergency response is the provision of bottled water, with authorities distributing huge quantities ofsingle-serving plastic water bottles to residents.These pallets of water are an increasingly familiar sight in the U.S. They have become the defaultresponse not only to natural disasters but to a series of human-made emergencies – from the crises ofunsafe tap water in Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi, to contaminated groundwater in townsin California’s Central Valley. What these places also have in common is that their residents aredisproportionately low-income and nonwhite.An emergency bottled-water distribution site in Flint, Mich., in early 2016. Sarah Rice/Getty ImagesWhen communities face drinking-water crises, bottled water isa ‘temporary’ solution that often lasts years − andworsens inequalityPublished: October 25, 2023 8.33am EDTIn such communities, public officials and charitable donors often present bottled water as a stopgapsolution, to be used only until the immediate crisis is resolved. But in practice, bottled water oftenbecomes a long-term substitute for compromised tap-water supplies.As a sociologist, I study the social and environmental effects of the rapid growth of bottled-water consumption in the U.S. and beyond, and how it is linked to distrust of public tap water. In my new book, “Unbottled,” one chapter examines how these dynamics played out in Flint. As its exampleshows, communities can end up relying on bottled water – often at great expense – for years after acrisis.Seven years of bottled waterIn Flint, after the toxic lead and bacterial contamination of the city’s water system was revealed in2015, residents demanded – and received – access to free bottled water as an emergency measure.Over the next seven years, they wound up consuming hundreds of millions of bottles.While local activists and Michigan’s governor sought a federal disaster declaration that would havefacilitated bulk tanker deliveries of safe water, that request was denied, and bottled water remainedthe sole alternative water source on offer until free distribution ended in December 2022.Although most lead service lines in Flint have been replaced and officials claim the water is safe to drink, damaged pipes and appliances remain in some homes. Many residents continue to distrusttheir tap water, and many of them rely on purchased bottled water for their drinking, cooking and other needs.They are not alone. Studies and opinion polls show that low-income, Black and Latino householdsdistrust their tap water more – and consume more bottled water – than white and middle- or upper-income households. These differences have continued to widen since the Flint disaster.This isn’t a coincidence. While the vast majority of tap water in the U.S. meets all safety standards –only 7% to 8% of U.S. water systems experience any health-related violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act in an average year – these problems disproportionately affect low-income communities,particularly those with high proportions of Black and Latino residents. Towns from Illinois toCalifornia, and schools in Newark, Baltimore and other cities, have been dependent on bottled waterfor years.Bottling up water problems won’t fix themIn the aftermath of water-quality crises, it’s fair to ask: What’s wrong with just replacing tap waterwith bottled water?For one thing, buying enough packaged water to meet a family’s full drinking and cooking needs coststhousands of dollars a year. That’s to say nothing of bottled water’s far greater waste, energy andoverall environmental footprints.What’s more, in economically stressed communities with drinking-water problems, the readyavailability of bottled water can reduce the pressure on local or state officials to make hard political decisions, such as raising taxes to pay for system repairs. It is easier to let individuals assume theburden.Yet this isn’t a real solution. One Flint resident I interviewed described bottled water’s role in thedisaster as “a triage kind of thing. … It’s just something to hold us captive, basically, until we figurethis out. But there was nothing to figure out – fix the damn pipes and the infrastructure, and we won’tneed this bottled water.”In these settings, long-term dependence on bottled water is not just a sign of water insecurity – it alsoworsens economic and racial inequality. Bottled water’s far higher costs are being borne by those leastable to afford them, on top of water bills that are rising fast.Ending a five-decade funding droughtAll of these local water crises are less surprising when you consider that federal spending on publicwater infrastructure fell by 77% in real terms between 1977 and 2017. This nearly five-decadedisinvestment trend has forced cities and states to shoulder most of the costs of maintenance andcapital improvements.Many have delayed making repairs. The unfunded water infrastructure investment gap is estimated at $109 billion per year. As a result, the average age of U.S. water pipes rose from 25 years in 1970 to 45 years in 2020. The bottled-water industry sees crumbling U.S. water infrastructure and growingdistrust in tap water as a major market opportunity.I believe that the only way to truly solve these connected problems – deteriorating public watersystems, growing distrust of tap water, and long-term dependence on bottled water – is for the federalgovernment to reinvest in water infrastructure in a big way.Recently, lawmakers have begun taking steps in the right direction. In 2021, Congress passed majorinvestments in public water systems – both a $35 billion water infrastructure funding bill and thebipartisan infrastructure bill, which allocated $55 billion for water systems. While that alone isn’tnearly enough to resolve the nation’s drinking-water problems, it does show that reinvestment inpublic water infrastructure is politically possible.One such proposal in the current Congress is the WATER Act, which would allocate $35 billionannually to a permanent federal trust fund to improve water systems across the country – prioritizingdisadvantaged communities – and address the crisis of water affordability.Residents of East Porterville, California, lift pallets of bottledwater out of the back of a truck.Neighbors deliver bottled water in East Porterville, a town in California’s San Joaquin Valley, after wellsran dry in 2014. Citizens of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesWhile $35 billion is not a small sum, it’s less than the $46 billion Americans spent in 2022 to buybottled water.

When Communities Face Drinking Water Crises, Bottled Water is a \u27Temporary\u27 Solution That Often Lasts Years--and Worsens Inequality

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When Communities Face Drinking Water Crises, Bottled Water is a \u27Temporary\u27 Solution That Often Lasts Years--and Worsens Inequality

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